/i:/

For a note on how AWE organizes its group of articles on vowels, basically by aspects of sound and of writing, see category:vowels.

i:

The symbol /iː/ (a normal lower case i with a triangular colon) is used in the International Phonetic alphabet to represent a 'close front unrounded vowel' - the sound, in the RP pronunciation of British English, of such words as 'be', 'see', 'police' and 'team'. This is the sound best described phonetically as a long 'I'. It is the normal European realization of the letter '-i-', from which it derives its IPA symbol.

It is represented in English spelling by the letters:

• -e- by itself, as in 'be', 'me', 'she', 'cathedral' and 'rethink';
• -e- vollowed by 'magic e', as in 'here', 'these' and 'complete';
• -ea-, as in 'beam', 'treat', 'appeal' and 'speak';
• -ee-, as in 'free', 'speech', 'green' and 'street';
• -ei-, as in 'deceive', 'seize', 'protein' and 'ceiling';
• -i- by itself, mostly with foreign words such as 'ski', the Italian 'spaghetti', 'celli' (the plural of cello) and 'macaroni', and 'bikini', from the name of the island in the indigenous Pacific language Marshallese ('Pikinni');
• -i- with magic e, 'police', 'routine', 'prestige', 'unique' and 'sardine';
• and some nonce words:
  • 'key';
  • 'quay';
  • 'people';

Much of the information on this page has been taken from McArthur and Bell (2004).